1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an equipment for semiconductor fabrication, and more particularly, to a wafer container for storing integrated circuit wafers.
2. Description of Related Art
For an average semiconductor fabrication, hundreds of integrated circuits consisting of tiny solid-state electronic devices are built on a wafer. Since the tiny solid-state electronic devices are easily damaged by slight scratches on the wafer or the abnormal vibration of the wafer. Hence, it is an important task to design a container that ensures that the wafers and the devices thereon are not damaged during the steps of storing, shipping, and retrieving wafers.
Referring to FIG. 1A, a perspective diagram of a conventional wafer container, the container consists of a cap 110 and a bucket 130, wherein the bucket 130 is used to contain wafers, and the cap 110 is used to seal the wafer container. While proceeding storing wafers, wafers are put into the bucket 130 first, and then, the bucket 130 and the wafers therein is screwed into the cap 110 to seal the container, as shown in FIG. 1B. The slit 120 on the bucket 130 is used for checking the status of the stored wafers, storing and retrieving wafers.
However, the conventional wafer container is not able to provide enough protection to the wafers therein during the sealing, and shipping. For example, screwing the cap 130 tends toward damaging the surface of wafers. It is also difficult to set the cylindrical wafer container still during shipping. The wafers is only surrounded by the wafer container without cushion of any kinds, so wafers can be damaged by the vibration generated during shipping.